Final Jeopardy! wagering analysis:
Monday, March 14, 2016

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In tonight’s video, I thank a lot of people. And then do other things.

I hope the video speaks for itself. Thank you to everyone who was supportive after last week’s meltdown. It was just one of those weeks.

Here are tonight’s scores:

Gordon Moffat (1x)	Philip Tiu	Amanda Darby
16,000	10,600	11,000

And we’ve got this category:

THE NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE

Philip is a math professor, so this should be fun. I am unsure whether either player was a holdover from last time – if neither was, then neither is aware of Gordon’s wager from Friday.

First-order calculations

Amanda is in Stratton’s Dilemma: she should either wager everything or very little.

Gordon		Philip		Amanda
16,000		10,600		11,000
FIRST-ORDER		SECOND-ORDER		COVER ZERO
min	max	min	max	min	max
6,000			600	10,200*
					1,000

Second-order calculations

There is some potential for mind games.

Gordon		Philip		Amanda
16,000		10,600		11,000
FIRST-ORDER		SECOND-ORDER		COVER ZERO
min	max	min	max	min	max
6,000		200	600	10,200*
		9,400*		200	1,000
	4,000

Zero wagers

Score differences:
Gordon and Amanda: 5,000
Gordon and Philip: 5,400
Amanda and Philip: 400

Gordon		Philip		Amanda
16,000		10,600		11,000
FIRST-ORDER		SECOND-ORDER		COVER ZERO
min	max	min	max	min	max
6,000		400	600	10,200*
		9,400*		200	400
	4,000

Well, let’s see what happens here.

What actually happened

Gordon		Philip		Amanda
16,000		10,600		11,000
4,000		10,598		5,000
12,000		21,198		6,000
min	max	min	max	min	max
6,001		401	599	11,000
		10,600		201	399
	3,999

Seems like we have a plague of people wagering 4,000 and 5,000. What is going on? We were doing so well for a few weeks.

In any event: We’re back in business here, and I have a smile on my face tonight.

The Final Jeopardy! clue

THE NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE

A 2013 LAUREATE, THIS BRITISH MAN WROTE A 1954 THESIS ON “PROBLEMS IN THE THEORY OF MOLECULAR VIBRATIONS”

[spoiler]Who is Peter Higgs? (The existence of the “God particle”, a.k.a. the Higgs boson, was confirmed in 2012.)[/spoiler]

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